J-P Bocquet-Appel and O. Bar-Yosef (eds): The Neolithic Demographic Transition and Its Consequences

Abstract

The transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural lifestyle marks a global turning point in human prehistory. We now know that this transition not only varied in its timing and magnitude across regions but also in its demographic, social, economic and symbolic characteristics. It is also evident from archaeological studies that the tempo, duration and intensity of the transition were not uniform and that in “core regions”, such as the Levant, the transition was a lengthy and complex process which took over two millennia to complete (Bar-Yosef and Meadow 1995; Kuijt and Goring-Morris 2002). A central question which comes to mind is whether it is possible to detect and define any universal characteristics which are shared by all societies which adopted agriculture. This volume (edited by J-P Bocquet-Appel and O. Bar-Yosef), is set to examine such a universal process: the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). The NDT involved an abrupt and drastic increase in the proportions of subadults aged between 5 and 19 years and an increase in fertility attributed to the narrowing of birth spacing following the transition to a sedentary lifestyle. The volume contains 19 contributions from leading researchers in the field of physical anthropology (paleodemography, paleopathology), and archaeology (including archaeozoology and evolutionary archaeology). The main strength of this volume is its clear focus on the NDT and related processes. The readers should be aware that the volume’s starting assumption is that the NDT was indeed a pivotal universal process. Consequently, much less emphasis is placed on addressing alternative models and critical assessment of the models’ underlying presuppositions. However, many chapters center on the study of nondemographic aspects and by doing so provide readers with very useful perspectives on some of the role of social and cultural change in shaping Neolithic societies. The volume is divided into four parts. Part 1 focuses on the demographic and economic aspects of the NDT (eight chapters). Part II focuses on settlement patterns and village practices (three chapters). Part III addresses changes in community size and social organization (four chapters). Part IV focuses on population growth and health (three chapters). Readers who are not familiar with the NDT should begin with reading Boquest –Appel’s article (2002) and chapter 3 (this volume). The allocation of chapters according to these topical headings is somewhat confusing especially since the contributions predominantly differ in their overall approach: demographic, archaeological and anthropological. However, the Neolithic transition was a complex multifaceted process and consequently it is inevitable that many of the contributions fit into more than one of these categories. Four of the contributions in the first section focus on the demographic dimensions of the NDT in several world regions: East and Southeast Asia (Bellwood and Oxenham), the Levant (Guerrero et al.), the North American Southwest (Kohler & Glaude), and Mesoamerica (Lesure). The chapters by Ozdogan, Vigne, (Section I), Goring-Morris, and Kuijt (Section II) are of great interest to scholars who wish to gain more insight about the social, economic and architectural developments associated with the transition to agriculture in the Levant and Anatolia. The importance of these contributions is in providing readers not with general reviews but rather with in-depth syntheses on the complex diachronic processes underlying the transition in these regions. Section III contains two contributions which address the demographic aspects of the NDT on the basis of archaeologically derived parameters such as settlement size and Hum Ecol DOI 10.1007/s10745-009-9246-1